Police Log

Posted
Tuesday, March 12, 2013 1:00 pm

The Police Log is a digest of reports filed by the Warwick Police.

WHAT’S UP?

Some cases are easier to solve than others, according to a report filed by Officer William DiGiulio on March 2. DiGiulio said he was dispatched to Colesonian Drive around 6:20 p.m. for a larceny from a car that had just occurred. A man told him his wife was leaving the house to go to dinner when she saw the light on in her car and a man looking through the glove box. She shouted, “Get out of my car” and the suspect ran off towards River Avenue with the woman’s husband in pursuit.

The husband told DiGiulio he chased the man about 200 yards before an object fell out of the suspect’s pocket. It was a cell phone. He said he dialed a number on the phone and a female answered, saying, “What’s up?” DiGiulio told her he found the phone and wanted to know whom it belonged to. She told him it belonged to Eddie Amaral, at 6 Chambly Ave., Warwick. Dispatch sent a police officer to watch the house, and when Amaral got home, DiGiulio took the husband over to Amaral’s place, where he identified Eduardo Amaral, 26, as the man he chased. Amaral was arrested and charged with larceny from a motor vehicle.

SHOPLIFTING

A Warwick man was arrested at the Walmart on Bald Hill Road on March 4 after loss prevention told police he took a computer hard drive from the electronics department and a toy in a diaper bag before walking out of the store without paying for them. Eric G. Studley, 27, of 90 Vera St., was charged with shoplifting and released with a summons.

Det. Theodore Bulis reported being called to the scene of a shoplifting arrest at the Target store at Warwick Mall on March 2. Loss prevention at the store told Bulis they had video of two men in the store selecting random DVDs and putting them in a cart before wheeling the cart to another section of the store, where one man acted as lookout while the other stuffed his jacket pockets with DVDs. They said he stopped when he couldn’t fit anymore in his pockets and left the remainder in the cart as he walked out without paying for them. They said they confronted him outside and he struggled with them until his jacket slipped off and he fled into a car in the parking lot. They said his accomplice chased after the car and jumped in as it was driving away. Bulis said the car was stopped on East Avenue and a large number of DVDs were recovered in the car. He said the two men in the car admitted they had taken the DVDs and told police they had been stealing DVDs regularly for a few months and selling the DVDs to stores that dealt in them. Bulis said they told him they were at several stores in Coventry and other parts of the state that day and the DVDs were in a green mesh bag in the car. David A. Castelli, 21, of 44 Watson Ave., Narragansett, and Richard DelSanto, 20, of 314 Lawnacre Dr., Cranston, were charged with shoplifting and later released with summonses.

DUI AND REFUSAL

Officer Hovsep Sarkisian reported stopping a car on West Shore Road that had been swerving in and out of travel lanes around 1:25 a.m. on Feb. 27. He said the driver appeared to be intoxicated and smelled of alcohol and failed a field sobriety test. He said the driver was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and several plastic bags containing what looked like marijuana. He said the driver refused a breath test at headquarters. He was charged with DUI, refusal and possession of nine grams of marijuana when the contents of the bags tested positive for marijuana. Jacob T. Birkenfeld, 20, of 56 Sayles Ave., Warwick, was later released to a sober adult.

Officer Timothy Kenyon reported stopping a car on Bald Hill Road around 12:40 a.m. on March 1 for weaving in and out of the travel lanes. Kenyon said the driver told him he may have been drifting between lanes because he was looking for his cigarettes, but Kenyon thought it was drugs or alcohol after he gave the driver a field sobriety test and he failed it. He said the driver gave police a brief struggle after they told him he was under arrest on suspicion of drunk driving. He said they also found a bottle with several pills in it that turned out to be amphetamines that the driver did not have a prescription for Scott M. Cole, 33, of 479 Providence St., Warwick, was charged with DUI, refusal and possession of a controlled substance and held for the next session of District Court.

Officer Joshua Myer reported he was dispatched to the area of Point Avenue around 2:15 p.m. for a report of a red pickup truck striking a telephone pole and driving over lawns before it was found at 53 Blake St. with the driver still sitting in the driver’s seat. He said the driver was highly intoxicated and was not able to even take a field sobriety test and said, “[Expletive] it. I’m all done.” The driver was taken to headquarters, where he refused to take a breath test. Thomas V. Whalen, 49, of 53 Blake St., was charged with DUI, refusal, driving on a suspended license, driving an unregistered vehicle and three outstanding warrants. He was later turned over to the ACI Intake Center.

LARCENY

A Warwick man told police he left his Toyota Tacoma at the Park and Ride on Airport Road around 5 a.m. on March 8 and returned around 3:30 p.m. to find that the tailgate to the truck was missing. He said the tailgate was in excellent condition and had been sprayed with a liner to match the rest of the flatbed. He said he didn’t even notice that it was missing until he got home and when he saw it was gone returned to the Park and Ride and called the police. He told police a friend of his called him and said he saw someone in a pickup truck similar to his parked next to the victim’s around 7:30 a.m. No other suspects or witnesses at the time.

A worker at Drum Rock School told police she parked her car outside the school around 8:30 a.m. on March 8 and was told around 11:15 that the driver’s side window had been smashed. She said she went to take a look and found that her iPod Touch was gone. She said it cost between $400 and $500. There were no witnesses or suspects.

A resident of Capron Farm Drive told police he parked his Toyota Tundra in front of his house overnight on March 5 and returned to find the door ajar and found that several credit cards, a debit card, his license and his late father’s Social Security card and license were missing from the cab. Nothing else was taken and there were no witnesses or suspects.

FAMOUS

Officer Jacob Elderkin reported he was at the Shell station at Elmwood Avenue and Post Road around 7:10 p.m. on Feb. 2 when he got behind an SUV with a loud radio that had peeled rubber leaving the gas station. He said the driver was jumping and twisting around as she waited at the red light, appearing to dance, scream and sing at the same time. He said it accelerated onto Post Road and swerved in and out of its lanes until he pulled it over at the McDonald’s at 820 Post Rd. He said he asked the driver where she was going and she replied, “She was going to be famous,” and then turned the radio up and continued singing. He said she would not answer questions, would not stop singing and would not sit still. He said she did not smell of alcohol but appeared to be on some sort of drugs. He said he was calling for a drug specialist to the scene when she suddenly peeled rubber again and took off. He said himself and another officer followed the SUV into Cranston as it continued to move erratically until it got onto Route 95 North and Cranston and State Police were notified of the pursuit that went through Providence, North Providence and back into Providence, where it started turning onto side streets until it pulled over at 161 Harold St. in Providence. He said himself and the other officers approached her with drawn guns and pulled her out of the vehicle without further incident. He said the driver was “fidgety” throughout the processing and the field test and failed the test. He said she did consent to a breath test that showed zero alcohol and the driver was taken to Kent Hospital, where she did take a blood test that was sent off for testing. Stephanie Banville, 21, of 229 Shawomet Ave., Warwick, was charged with reckless driving, eluding police, driving without a license, laned roadway violations and violation of probation. She was held for the next session of District Court and may face a DUI charge based on the blood test results.